Ghostbusters: Meet Kristen Wiig's Erin Gilbert

The debut of the Ghostbusters reboot is a mere seven months away and writer/director Paul Feig is reticent to give away any details on the project. Yes, it’s an all-female cast starring four of today’s funniest female comedians. Yes, the original heroes — Dan Akyroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson — are back in cameo roles, as is the film’s original love-interest-turned demonically-possessed temptress, Sigourney Weaver. Yes, the ECTO-1, the proton packs, and the original Ghostbuster logo will also make a return. But after that, it’s a whole new world.

Feig calls Wiig’s character, Erin Gilbert, “Particle physicist, academic firebrand, spectral warrior.” Little else is known about her character except she enjoys battling the ethereal and likely doesn’t have much of a social life.

What Feig will divulge is how kinetic the chemistry was on set between Wiig and her co-stars: Melissa McCarthy, who plays scientist Abby Yates; Kate McKinnon, who plays avant garde researcher Jillian Holtzmann; and Leslie Jones, the transportation official Feig describes as having “a particular skill set.”

“They are four incredibly talented women, each with a unique voice and style of comedy,” Feig adds. “The fact that they meshed so well and complemented each other so well made this team of paranormal warriors a very interesting and fully-rounded group. The funniest people who come from sketch, stand-up, or just comedy, in general, work well together because the good ones know they are only as good as those they are playing off, against, and with. The set was a fun, supportive and creatively fertile environment.”

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Kristen Wiig: The Anti-Comedian

Kristen Wiig's Saturday Night Live characters respond to social discomfort by talking too much and moving too much. They're a blur of tics and noises. (It's not coincidental that she does a great Kathie Lee Gifford impression.) But in the dimly lit Gordon Ramsay restaurant of her L.A. hotel, in her hipster black knit beret, Wiig is leaning back, sipping green tea and not talking or moving much at all, just being cool. It's awkward but not comic awkward. Normal awkward. Usually performers will answer "How are you?" with enough to fill your notebook. But Wiig didn't do any performing at all until she was in her late 20s. Not college theater, not high school talent shows, not little skits for her parents. In fact, she doesn't really like to speak to crowds. "At parties, I'll start talking and notice everyone is looking at me and feel dumb and say, 'Forget it,' and then start eating things," she says.
Which is how she is in movies — no crazy hair, no crazy eyes, no crazy jumping into other actors' shots. In movies, she's the anti–Will Ferrell. She played indie small in Ghost Town, Adventureland and Extract. After she was in minor roles in two Judd Apatow–produced movies, Knocked Up and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Apatow asked her — as he has Steve Carell, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel — to write a movie that she could star in for his company. So she and Annie Mumolo, a friend from the L.A. improv troupe the Groundlings, co-wrote Bridesmaids, a dude comedy with a chick-flick plot: a single, unemployed woman (Wiig) is asked to be the maid of honor for a friend (Maya Rudolph) who's marrying a rich guy.

It's a smart blend: the Apatow heart squishiness is already built in, and the crude jokes feel new when told from a woman's perspective. We've all seen explosive diarrhea onscreen before — but we haven't seen it from characters trying on wedding dresses. And until now, no film has given nearly enough attention to the plight of mothers changing the sheets of their pubescent sons.
Still, a movie with both fart noises and gowns is a tough sell, and it took four years for Bridesmaids to get made. "Maybe studios don't want to see women acting in a way that isn't womanly," Wiig, 37, says. "Maybe people don't." But the more Wiig devolves into horribleness in Bridesmaids — tearing apart the wedding-shower cake out of jealousy — the more sympathetic she is. "Kristen has this really likable personality that doesn't require her going big," Apatow says. "There are certain people — you love them, but you like seeing them abused. It might be the most important comedy quality: 'I love you, but I want to see horrible things happen to you,'" he adds. "She plays wilted very well," says Mumolo. "It's these boiling emotions inside barely making their way out because she's working so hard to cover them."

Covering her emotions doesn't seem as if it requires a lot of work at the restaurant, as we eat our finger sandwiches. The problem is that Wiig is shy, cool and pretty — not the petri dish of insecurities from which most comedians are made. She loved high school. (Not only was she not in any clubs; she was also one of those people who sneaked into yearbook pictures of the clubs to make fun of them.) At the University of Arizona, Wiig studied art. Then she moved to L.A. and did arty jobs: florist, graphic artist for a plastic surgeon (she illustrated what patients would look like after an operation), decorative painter. When Wiig eases up around people — I've heard — her weird creativity comes out, and she does a lot of voices and imitations. So many that the decorative painter she worked for recommended that she see a show by the Groundlings, the troupe that trained Phil Hartman, Conan O'Brien and Lisa Kudrow.

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Kristen Wiig Shows Up To ‘Tonight Show’ As Peyton Manning — Hilarious Video

Funny woman Kristen Wiig brought the laughs during her latest appearance on ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’ when she sat down for an entire interview dressed as Super Bowl champ Peyton Manning! Even the pro comedians couldn’t suppress their laughter during the sit-down! Watch it here!

Kristen Wiig, 41, has done it again! For her interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon on Feb. 12, the Zoolander 2 actress dressed up as Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning, and really got into character for her hilarious impression. She even showed off some of her NFL-worthy quarterback skills! Watch the hilarious video below!

Rather than using her appearance on The Tonight Show to promote her role in the soon-to-be-released Zoolander 2, Kristen chose to do her entire interview as the Denver Broncos quarterback, despite knowing next to nothing about him, or football for that matter. Dressed in Peyton’s full uniform complete with a #18 jersey and a blonde Manning-esque wig, Kristen sat down with the late-night host to reveal how she felt in the final moments of the Super Bowl match on Feb. 7, as well as some other lesser known facts about the NFL pro.
“Peyton Manning, I can’t believe…first of all, I can’t believe you’re still wearing the uniform all week long,” Jimmy told his guest. “Thank you for doing this. I know this is last minute. You look good.” The Ghostbusters actress, who didn’t seem to know much about Super Bowl 50, said she was “still so tired” from Sunday’s big game. “I tried really hard. I’m thinking I’m so far from the line. I’m far away from the line and I have to get it to the…I gotta do it, gotta get this ball to the guy.”

As for the final score of the game, Kristen once again seemed at a loss for words, hilariously replying, “it was 14-6…in my mind anyways.” Unsurprisingly, Kristen also didn’t seem to know which player was named MVP, either. “He didn’t do anything wrong the whole game,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m so proud of you. Just go out tonight. Just go out tonight! Don’t worry about it. Just have a good time.'”
The former SNL star also fibbed about other aspects of Peyton’s history, including where he went to school and what he studied (Note: it was not the University of Florida, like Kristen suggested). During a rapid-fire round, Jimmy also asked her to pick her favorite pre-game meal, favorite color, favorite hobby, favorite band, favorite clothing store and favorite yoga pose. Well, just let you experience those laughs for yourself though.

The whole thing ended with Kristen showing off her not-so-spot-on football skills, throwing a gold ball in the general direction of a small hole across the stage.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Kristen has declined to appear as herself on The Tonight Show. In previous appearances, she’s pretended to be Michael Jordan, One Direction’s Harry Styles and even Khaleesi from Game Of Thrones. Clearly, she’s got a knack for pageantry!

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